Comeback, Tournament Hopes Fall Short in Stoughton High Baseball's Loss to KP

Down 8-0 in a game the Stoughton High baseball team had to win to keep its postseason tournament hopes alive, the Black Knights fought back, as they have all season, but ultimately came up short, losing 8-5 to King Philip Saturday at home.

With the loss Stoughton falls to 6-11, eliminating the team from state tournament contention. King Philip improves to 6-10.

“We didn’t get it done. When you set a goal and don’t meet it, it is what it is. Our goal was to make the tourney and I felt like we were capable of doing that. It kind of hurts, but give credit to KP, they were the better team,” Stoughton coach Mike Armour said.

“We had some opportunities to capitalize and didn’t. It was nice that the guys fought to the end.”

Trailing 8-0, Stoughton started the comeback rally in the fifth inning. KP pitcher Mike Capobianco allowed just two baserunners in the first four innings, sending the Black Knights down in order in the first, second and third innings.

But in the fifth, Sean O’Malley and Atticus Rentsch both reached to lead off the inning. Pat Jackman brought O’Malley home with an infield single, cutting the deficit to 8-1, but the Black Knights ended the inning stranding runners on second and third.

In the sixth, Alex Fernandes and Mike Connelly reached to lead off the inning, but just like the inning before, the next two batters were retired. With two outs, Rentsch walked to load the bases. Luca Venterosa followed, reaching on an error, with two runners scoring. But, again, just like the fifth, Stoughton ended the inning stranding runners on second and third.

Down to their last three outs, and trailing 8-3, Jackman led off the bottom of the seventh and ripped the ball to the gap in right centerfield, but KP centerfielder Jake Cox made a diving catch, sliding on his stomach to rob the Stoughton sophomore of a hit.

Eric McPherson and Fernandes each singled, driving Capobianco from the game.

“Mike Capobianco did a nice job starting the game, mixing up his pitches,” KP coach Ed Moran said. “They had a lot of hits, but a lot of them never left the infield, they got eaten up by this grass and we couldn’t make the plays because they’re a quick team.”

With one out and runners on first and second, Mike Connelly doubled off reliever Connor Layman, driving in two, cutting the deficit to 8-5.

Frankie Morris was then hit by a pitch. O’Malley stepped to the plate representing the tying run. On a passed ball, Connelly tried to advance from second to third, but was thrown out by catcher Ryan Fess on a close call for the inning’s second out. O’Malley then grounded out to end the game.

Moran was impressed with his freshman catcher, making his first varsity start.

“That was a great play,” Moran said of Fess throwing out Connelly. “A freshman did not panic, kept his composure, made a solid throw and [was] lucky enough to get [Connelly] at third.”

In the this season, it was Stoughton who jumped out to a big lead (7-0) en route to an 11-4 win. This time KP returned the favor.

Leading 3-0, KP scored five times in the top of the fourth, with Rob Bolter, Fess, Cox, Jeff Plympton and Ryan Manning all crossing the plate.

Plympton and Manning each scored two runs for KP in the win.

“[Stoughton] likes to run, so getting an 8-run cushion kind of took that part of their game out of them,” Moran said.

Fernandes, Jackman and Will McGrath combined to pitch for Stoughton.

Fernandes finished with two hits, a walk, a stolen base and two runs scored. McPherson and Connelly each had two hits and scored a run.

“We’re young, we’re going to be back, we’re going to finish this year strong and we’ll be back ready to go next year,” Armour said. “I still believe in these guys.”

Stoughton plays Monday at home, the first of three scheduled games for the Black Knights this upcoming week.